Pennsylvania Shows Strong Dairy Income

Income over feed cost in Pennsylvania has averaged just under $12/cwt for the first four months of 2014. That’s driven by lower feed costs, but more importantly, record milk prices.

"Penn State’s measure of income over feed costs fell by 2.2% in April, but it is still very high," says Jim Dunn, an ag economist with Penn State. "The April value of $11.93/cow/day is the second highest value since we began calculating this measure."

Pennsylvania’s all-milk price has averaged over $26/cwt since the first of year, with January’s prices the only one below $25/cwt at $24.90. Milk prices are expected to decline the rest of the year, based on current future prices. The Pennsylvania all-milk price is still expected to come in at $25.64 for May, and then slowly drift down to $22.29 by December.

If these prices hold, the Pennsylvania all-milk price would average $24.46 for all of 2014.

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Anonymous5/9/2014 09:16 AM

Sounds great---but , feed cost are just a part of the cost of producing milk . Taxes are still up, replacement cost of equipment is climbing ,fuel and all the other input cost are still rising at a faster rate than the profitability of milk . The bottom line at the end of the year sure will be better than the recent past but it will take a long time to recover all that we have lost in those years . These prices give the farmer less purchasing power than he had in 1950 . These may be the highest prices but only 50% of that purchasing value of the 1950 dollar .... !!!!!